Page 1 of Is the 3 mobile network any good?

A mate had a 3 phone and contract a year ago and he used to constantly moan about the signal quality and the customer service.

I am interested in taking up one of these cheap 3 contracts (£4.99 a month line rental jobbies) but worried that it may all be a big pain and / or waste of time.

Can anyone share their views on 3 ?

I live and work around the City of London / Essex if that helps with the signal quality issue. I have also been told that when there is no signal it switches to one of the other service providers. If this is correct then will any inclusive minutes still work with the other providers or not?

Thanks in advance...

a friend of mine who works for carphone warehouse said that they are a fookin nightmare!!! they offer cheap tarriffs and decent handsets but are severely hampered by atrocious customer service (i think their call centres based in mumbai) and poor coverage.

keep on keepin` strong, keep on keepin` on...

I have heard terrible things about them from 2 friends who had a contract with them. Reception was terrible, it was so bad that one of them abandoned the phone/company altogether and bought a PAYG O2 phone because she wasn`t able to make/receive calls with the 3 network.

The calls to c/service in India were a joke. My friend had been put on hold for 2 hours!! :o Her phone bill was sky high and she never received an answer to her original complaint, she only found the answer after I found a group of people on the net who had set up a message board to help each other out with regards 3!

Apparently they wil do anything to stop you cancelling your contract and still try and take money after your contract is cancelled, talking to the staff on the helplines is frustrating because they are just reading from a manual, I thought my friend was kidding until she put her conversation on speakerphone and everytime she explained what the problem was the woman on the other end paused and continued to read whatever sales pitch was in front of her as if my friend had said nothing!! :o

Oh yes, just remembered that one girl at my college also has a 3 phone and said the reception is terrible.

The best thing you can do is to visit a "3" store near you (if you have one) and get the sales assistant to show you a working handset on the network. You dont have to buy it from them but atleast you`ll know its worth it!

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About now im having amnesia and deja vu. I think Ive forgotten this before :D

thanks for the feedback guys - just confirmed my fears.
Think I will go for the Orange deal at e2save I just read about on the Bargain Buckets forum here.

its all a load of old crap, me and my wife both on that new threepay crap and it dont do what it says on the tin, dont bother if i was you.

I have had one of their phones for 2 months now. Although reception is not the best in the world, it is pretty good most of the time. I got it because it was so cheap, £15/month for 500 mins, I didnt see the £5.00 deals,. I was runing a vodafone contract at the same time but will now stop that and transfer my number over. I have only called customer service once and while it was in New Delhi(or somewhere like that), I got through fairly quickly and my question was answered.

I was told that when there is no signal, it will switch to the O2 network. What was interesting was that when vodafone heard I was leaving, they offered me 400 mins for £25/month if I stayed with them. They also tried to put me off moving by telling me all sorts of nonsence about the 3 network which was untrue.

I would say that if you`re unsure, u can try them for 14 days. If its no good u can get a refund and if youre not too heavy a user, its probably worth putting up with a slightly lesser service for the cost saving.

BTW, Im based in West London

Been with them five months with no problems. In terms of voice calls, you automatically port onto O2 if the 3 signal fails.

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Clayts, Moderator, DVD Reviewer
UK webmaster for Area 450 the independent Sampo/Maxent DVD site

3 reception in Stoke-on-Trent is crap one minute then great the next minute, then crap the next, then great the next and so on

...summed up as CRAP

We have the Motorola A835, size not ideal but the graphics display is excellent.
In my family we have 4 x 3g connections and know 6 others outside the family who have 3g connections and they also are very pleased.
I think the service has greatly improved, even the call centre was satisfactory, that hurts to say that as I beleive the jobs should stay in the UK anyway thats another debate.
We will be upgrading to the new LG phones within the next few weeks and staying with 3g ( I say we because in my family all four of us are on 3g).
My 12 month contract is up in 3 weeks time, and I will be upgrading my handset and staying with 3.
You get alot of people dismissing 3 without any hard facts, I admit when they launched the first 3 weeks were not good, but once over their teething problems they give the competition a run for their money, you only have to look at the tarrifs.
If the associate at Carphone Warehouse says they are crap why is it they are still dealing with them?
In the USA the whole package that 3 offer would be reconized, over here in the UK you build them up and then want to knock them down as quick as you build them up, and then complain when you have very poor service.
You can always try it out with Carphone Warehouse using their 14 day return policy?

Have a nice day.
Keith

This item was edited on Thursday, 25th November 2004, 13:21